In a new bid to clamp down on referee abuse, any club failing to ensure the safety of officials could be banned or forced to play all their matches away from home, EP Rugby acting president George Malgas warned.
Malgas was reacting to a statement from the EP Rugby Referee Society (EPRRS) last week after several alleged incidents of verbal and physical abuse of their match officials at school games in July.
The society has demanded schools provide an action plan on measures they will put in place to secure the safety of match officials on their premises.
In response, Malgas sent out a strongly worded statement to clubs warning of dire consequences if any referee abuse is reported.
He said: “The EPRU is committed to addressing the issue to ensure the safety of match officials, their families and assets during and after the games.
“We now call on our clubs to take this seriously because from now onwards, the host club will be called to answer should any incident of match officials abuse, whether on or off the pitch, take place in their home match.”
Malgas said the maximum sentence may range from playing all home matches away to suspension of the club membership from EPRU.
“This is not a new issue; it has been with rugby and all other sports for many years, but we do not want to one day wake up to the news that a match official has lost his or her life while officiating a rugby match.
“Earlier this year there were incidents of match officials’ abuse that were reported to our inquiries department by clubs, and the union is dealing with those.
“But one was alarmed when this culture was now going down to schools where there were several alleged incidents of verbal and physical abuse of match officials at school games this year.”
He said this meant there was still a small minority of people in clubs and schools abusing referees.
“That behaviour is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated at Eastern Province Rugby Union.
“It is with this background that we acted with speed on receiving the correspondence from EPRRC on Tuesday by putting the matter on the agenda of Wednesday night’s management committee (manco) meeting to try to find an amicable solution to the problem.”
Malgas said the manco had pledged EPRU and club support to the match officials and would continue to do everything in their power to stamp “this scourge out our rugby” by ensuring perpetrators are brought to book
They are also considering including stronger sanctions for those found guilty.
“However, none of this can happen if our clubs are not helping us by enforcing our prevention strategy.
“The safety guidelines of EPRU are clear in this regard that the safety of the match officials during match days is the responsibility of the host team.”
He said this should start from the time match officials arrived until they left the venue.
“While it is only a small minority of people who behave badly towards match officials, this is still too many, and we are all called to do everything we can to stamp out this behaviour from our game.
“EPRU will now prioritise these cases and the first point of intervention is our prevention strategy anchored on the host clubs ensuring the match officials’ safety accompanied by hefty sentences for those found guilty.
“We hope our clubs and schools are determined to tackle this issue and build a safer and more inclusive environment for our match officials to have happy and fulfilling long-term experiences in the field of play, just as we do.”
HeraldLIVE
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